What I've realized about healing in XIV...

[VanilleFang]

...And I wouldn't mind it so much if healer DPS was actually engaging or interesting but they seem to have dumbed it down so much that it's literally 2 buttons. :\

Healer DPS is 2 buttons? Really? I wasn't aware that Aero II, Aero III, Stone III, and Assize were just 2 buttons. WHM also have Holy, and then you can include Thin Air and Prensence of Mind in some occasions, and even possibly Cleric Stance you have it set.

Healer DPS may not be as rotation heavy or "interesting" than other jobs but it's not "literally 2 buttons". Also healer DPS is the way it is so that you are punished for weaving in healing between DPS spells, or vice versa.


And like Cynfeal said, the healing in this game isn't "wack-a-mole" because if you know a fight you know when to heal, outside human error.

[KalinOrthos]

Maybe it's because I'm a garbage human, but I find DPSing as a healer so unfulfilling. Maybe I'm just a traditionalist, but my first priority as a healer is to heal, so this push to make healer DPS an absolute requirement is silly to me. Sure, if there's downtime, I'll throw out Combusts and Malefics, but with tanks nowadays spending more time in DPS stances and chain pulling, it makes it harder to do. It's why I've drifted away from healing, despite how much I adore AST, even since back in 3.0.

Well, that, and the fact that actually healing just feels so unfulfilling and unengaging nowadays.

[RichardButte]

I think their issue is more how healing in this game is a total feast-or-famine style re: HPS requirements and that if the developers would move encounters more towards different types of damage dispensation like persistent DoTs, constant stack mechanics instead of a "cluster and get chunked for 90% of your health but only once every minute or so", and boss autos hitting significantly harder that it would give room for new types of healers to excel in this game. I mean, part of the reason SCH was changed so drastically from 2.x to now I feel is because they were a single-target oriented/sustain healer trying to survive in a burst damage world. Rather than change how boss patterns and mechanics worked, instead the developers just gave SCH a bunch of burst reactive healing tools too. Kinda dull, if you ask me.

Exactly this.

Damage in other MMOs goes out at a far steadier rate and is more fun to heal as a result.

I'd rather be healing as a healer and DPSing as a DPS, not being a poor man's DPS because auto attacks tickle tanks and there's nothing to do otherwise.

Healer DPS is 2 buttons?

It is on AST, and I sadly leveled AST because I wanted the added interaction of the card buffs but even those don't make the experience interesting.

And like Cynfeal said, the healing in this game isn't "wack-a-mole" because if you know a fight you know when to heal, outside human error.

I'm referring to human error.

And healing being immensely predictable is a strike against it being interesting.

Really, other MMOs do healing infinitely better than XIV does. XIV is the only MMO I know where the whole "Healers need to DPS more!" is even an issue because of how much downtime there is.

Healers in WoW almost never stop pressing buttons while healing.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Really, other MMOs do healing infinitely better than XIV does.

Almost wish I enjoyed MMOs more. I'd kill for a more engaging and rewarding healer experience in this game.

[DynamoAce]

In the end, it makes healing feel more "whack-a-mole" like than fun because you need to watch like a hawk for when someone takes damage, as the next hit could very well kill them, but it's boring downtime between those "OH SHI-" moments.

I'm so going to make art out of this, picturing it in my head that way is hilarious.

[RichardButte]

Almost wish I enjoyed MMOs more. I'd kill for a more engaging and rewarding healer experience in this game.

It's unfortunate because XIV's DPS rotations are easily 2-3X more complex than WoW's, but XIV's healers are a snooze in comparison (both to XIV's DPS classes and WoW's healers).

WoW's DPS tend to be 4-5 buttons, tops. Compare that to NIN or MCH and there isn't even a contest.

XIV's healer issue stems from how damage is dealt to players, and I don't just mean in raids but even dungeons in WoW are more fun to heal because of the more constant nature of damage.

In fact, all of WoW's healers (that I tried, anyway) have a constant "maintenance rotation" that they'll be using to heal up the damage the tank is nearly always taking, and even this rotation is more involved than just spamming Cure I over and over. It's typically a low mana rotation that allows healers to constantly keep busy while they watch for bigger spikes of damage being taken.

XIV doesn't really have an equivalent to the maintenance healing rotation (as pressing the same button repeatedly isn't a "rotation", plus auto attack tickles tanks), and again, this might be due to the 2.5sec GCD not really allowing for such a thing.

In any case, the end result is that you have healers standing around, having to decide whether they should DPS or conserve mana in case things go bad suddenly, and neither of these are "fun" to me.

If XIV could strike a better balance in how players take damage in all situations (even dungeons), healing would immediately become more engaging and the healer DPS debate would be a thing of the past.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Snip.

I'm pretty sure even Monster Hunter handles a possible "healer/support" role better than FFXIV ever could. Even single player FFs tend to have more engaging healer play, especially in Tactics with a WHM. I just don't understand how anyone can look at the healing in this game and go "Yup, that's a healer" when healing feels like more of an afterthought than Feint on SAM.

[Shurrikhan]

In the end, it makes healing feel more "whack-a-mole".

You know what's really "whack-a-mole"? Being a Holy Paladin with a Beacon on the less damaged MT in a sporadic raid damage fight. It is "literally" mouseover macros attached to buttons 1-3 scrolling over your 5x5 grid of raidframes.

I'd rather have predictable, periodic burst damage than staring at a grid to keep up with sporadic random-target raid damage.

Now, that's a false ultimatum, obviously, but if we're to label one "whack-a-mole" grid-gaze healing fits the description far better than... I can't even picture what would possibly be whack-a-mole in XIV; if you're not precasting against the damage, you're already doing it wrong.

Should healers have more reason to spend GCDs healing? Sure, why not? Even in Savage GCDs spent DPSing noticeably outnumber those spent healing, which seems odd to say the least.

Could healer DPS be more complex? Yes, though it doesn't necessarily have reason or fitting opportunity to be, short of significant systemic changes to each healer job. You want your Stone casts to have a reason for their being cast beyond filler damage (e.g. to be the source of oGCD Stoneskins) or Aero casts to be more than DoT damage (e.g. allied or self haste)? So be it. But that's a tremendous change, even if for the better, and therefore won't be coming soon if at all.

[MoroMurasaki]

I'm pretty sure even Monster Hunter handles a possible "healer/support" role better than FFXIV ever could. Even single player FFs tend to have more engaging healer play, especially in Tactics with a WHM. I just don't understand how anyone can look at the healing in this game and go "Yup, that's a healer" when healing feels like more of an afterthought than Feint on SAM.

You must just be doing it wrong. DPS as a healer is the same as DPS as any other role - manage cooldowns, watch for procs that might free up MP or a GCD, optimize movement to allow the most possible casts, etc.

Looking at your time spent DPSing as a healer as somehow separate from your time spent healing the party is a super basic mistake. It's all about killing things before they kill you. If you're bored doing it then find a way to do it better, if you think there is no room for improvment in your healing post a video of you solo healing V4S.

I don't know, maybe you just have a really short attention span or something so you can't be bothered to try to optimize your playing? With your posts about how well you tank though I have to assume that can't be the case.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

I don't know, maybe you just have a really short attention span or something so you can't be bothered to try to optimize your playing? With your posts about how well you tank though I have to assume that can't be the case.

DPSing as a tank feels rewarding for good play. DPSing as a healer feels like being the average Joe Schmoe with how common it is in every party I've ever been in. I never not see a healer DPSing.